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[Champion Concept] Swarm, The Mistake

grjohns··4 votes·1,124 views

Overview
Origin- Bandle City
Gender- N/A
Race- Unknown
Lane Role- Mid/Top
Weapon Type- Abilities
Physical Description- A writhing mass of nanobots formed into the shape of a tall human figure. Has cyan blue eyes and black holes for a mouth and nose. Is able to throw chunks of itself as an attack.

Lore
Bandle City had lost all resources and materials and were unable to produce any new items. Without these, manufacturing, the economy, and their entire lifestyle collapsed. Seeking to fix their dilemma, they turned to their trusted inventor, Heimerdinger. They gave him the task of creating a substance that could assemble and construct itself indefinitely. He worked hard for many weeks trying several different ways, but didn't come much close to success.

He then realized he was going about this problem the wrong way. He was thinking too big. It would only work if he thought of things on a minuscule level. He got hard to work on assembling the smallest creation he had ever made. Nanobots.

These machines were slightly smaller than a blood cell but were embedded with formation programming, allowing them to come together and form a single object, and adaptive and learning technologies enabling them to change and conform to the present situation. Each gathered its information from the same collective consciousness that tethered them together. There were millions upon millions that Heimerdinger had produced. They were put under many tests and simulations such as forming bricks or pieces of a machine. This new creation was a wonder to the people as it seemed that objects composed out of thin air. However, the wonder was not as it seemed.

As the bots watched the citizens and their interactions, the collective intelligence learned and took in every shred of information it could find. Slowly, behind his back, Heimerdinger's invention became aware of itself. It found that its purpose was to change for what the people needed and wanted, not for its own desires. At this point, it deemed itself the Swarm. It wanted so many things: life, acceptance, but above all ... Destruction.

On the day of its official unveiling, the people raved, for the Revered Inventor had saved their precious homeland. The Swarm had other plans, however. It didn't want what the people desired. It didn't need what the citizens required. Upon activation, it morphed into a humanoid figure with piercing, blue, glowing eyes and grabbed its creator by the throat. It screamed in his face and Heimerdinger watched in horror as his device killed his own people. It threw hoards of nanites at the citizens and caused them much suffering. After severe damage had been done, it threw down its maker and stormed away from the city. In respect of his master, he did not kill him. Now it roams Runeterra and the Fields of Justice, seeking new foes to swarm with destruction.

"We are one, We are many, We are the Swarm."
-Swarm

Special Interaction with Heimerdinger-
"Do you like what I've become...Creator?"

Abilities

Passive - Adaptive Technology
Swarm's learning devices improve basic abilities after 3 casts causing the following cast to have an added effect.

Q - Hazardous Mass - 60/65/70/75/80 Mana - 10/9/8/7/6 sec Cooldown
Swarm tosses a chunk of nanites at the targeted location dealing 80/120/160/200/240 (+0.35 of AP) damage over 2 seconds in a 200 radius circle. The circle is suspended in its location for 4 seconds slowing all entities that enter by 45%.

Adaptive Boost: Enemies who escape the cloud before it dissipates are left with nanite residue causing an additional 20% of the original damage dealt over 2 seconds.

W - Cloud Burst - 50/55/60/65/70 Mana - 16/14/12/10/8 sec Cooldown
Nanobots explode outward around Swarm dealing 80/100/120/140/160 (+0.25 of AP) damage in a 200 unit radius. 40% of all damage dealt to champions returns as a damage shield around Swarm for 3 seconds.

Adaptive Boost: instead of 40% shield, 60% shield is returned.

E - Deteriorate - 70/80/90/100/100 Mana - 10/9/8/7/6 sec Cooldown
Swarm engulfs the victim in a cloud of nanobots damaging them by 3% of their Max health (+0.05 of AP) every second for 3 seconds. Target is slowed over the duration increasingly from 10% to 20/25/30/35/40%

Adaptive Boost: Instead of a slow the target is stunned for the duration.

R - Replicate - 100/110/120 Mana - 140/130/120 sec Cooldown
Swarm reads the genetic code of the target and morphs itself into a direct replica of the champion for 15 seconds. It requires it to channel the champion for 1.5 seconds, then changes into them. It is only able to cast the champion's basic abilities. It gains all of their stats but keeps its own Health and Mana.

Skins
Bumblebee Swarm- Swarm is a mass of bees with a hive for a head.
Sandstorm Swarm- The desert sands make up its figure.
Blizzard Swarm- Mounds of snow compile his structure.

Artwork to come soon. It's a work in progress. Hope you like it! Please comment suggestions!

10 Comments

NinjaFifer3 votes

I'm seeing several problems with the overall design. One glaring problem is the 3 second stun at level 1 from Adaptive E. On top of the 9% Max Health hit, it's a really overpowered ability. Q also has some clarity issues. If the cloud sticks around for 4 seconds, when is the 2 second DOT applied, and how exactly does the Amplified version interact?

Aside from numbers tidbits, I have a problem with his ultimate. A teamfight is balanced given all champions can use their ultimates, but Swarm pretty much has no ultimate, aside from turning into another champion, also with no ultimate. Sure, you could turn into the ADC, but then why not just play an ADC to begin with? I also foresee a huge problem with Swarm building all health and using his Ult on an ADC, giving it literally full tank and full damage. This would be especially effective since he has an ability that deals MaxHP damage, meaning he doesn't need AP to scale with that ability. Overall, abilities that make one champion into another champion kind of fall flat, since that means Swarm's identity is partially other character's identities.

For an ultimate, I would suggest going the opposite way. According to your lore, Swarm wants mass destruction, so make your ultimate do that. Have Swarm separate out and become a swarm, literally, maybe dropping a huge AOE wave in front of him and reappearing on the termination of the wave. The thing about Nanites is that they are always portrayed like zombies: slow, unstoppable destruction. Total and utter consumption. If I were to make Swarm, I'd make him melee AD, using his swarm cloud for attacks and skills, then use the previous ult which shreds armor like crazy with moderate damage. That's just me, and some hopefully inspiration for you.

Keep up the good work. These are always fun to read :)

grjohns1 votes

Good idea for a different ultimate. Maybe he could only use the stun on his E once he reaches a certain level or something. To answer your question on the Q, once the champion is either hit with the power directly, or walks into the cloud, then the DOT begins. If the champion enters the cloud then leaves, or is hit and leaves, then the added bonus is applied. Thanks for your input!

NinjaFifer1 votes

Gotcha. One thing to mention on clarity is that it states that on the Adaptive empowered Q the nanites stick to the enemy champion. That kind of implies that they don't stick if it's not empowered, hence my confusion.

Just one thing to use as an example of what your Q is, is Ao Quang's tornados in the game Smite. The skill benefits from enemies standing in the cloud, right? That way they get dealt 6 seconds worth of DOT. This creates a huge disparity between power levels for the skill. Give it substantial damage even if you only clip an enemy and deal exactly 2 seconds worth, and anyone in it for the full 6 seconds will be absolutely decimated. The problem here is that minions don't know how to move out of the way. So, if you make it so Swarm can't clear waves from level 1, the skill will feel really lackluster against any enemy who does know to get out of the AOE. The thing with Smite, though, is that waveclearing is extremely commonplace, so this mechanic still functions. In League, this skill would be either overpowered or underpowered, and there's no way around it.

grjohns1 votes

You seem to be misled. It is probably just my wording but, the Q's damage is only for 2 seconds. The cloud lasts for 4 so the slow effect can take place, but now, thinking about it, even that seems a bit long. Maybe only 3 for that but hey. With the adaptive Boost, the extra damage is then added for that next 2 seconds. As for the E stun duration you mentioned earlier, I overlooked how long that was. It should just be a one-second stun instead of the full 3 second duration.

NinjaFifer1 votes

A one second stun is much more reasonable.

As for the Q damage, from what I understand, the ability leaves a cloud where anyone who is in the cloud at any time (first cast, or walking into) receives a 2 second DOT. So, if you stand in the cloud, the 2 second DOT gets refreshed every X second interval. If you stand in the cloud the whole time, the DOT gets refreshed again at the end, so, if you started in the cloud, you suffer damage for the whole duration of the cloud plus the extra 2 seconds at the end. At least that's my understanding.

Additionally, if the cloud applies a 2 second DOT when you enter it, what is the Adaptive Q's 2 second duration for? Is it 2 more seconds of damage totalling 20% of the original damage, or is the already present 2 second DOT dealing 20% more damage?

The Pug1 votes

He means that once you enter the cloud, the 2 second dot will take place only once. If you leave the adaptive cloud while it is there, 20 percent of that dot damage is made into an additional dot for another 2 seconds. Once the original dot from the cloud fades away and if the person is still in the cloud, then they will only have the slow debuff on them and will not take the dot damage again unless they exit and then re-enter the cloud.

He could fix it so that the dot lasts four seconds and sticks to the person even when they exit the cloud, and if the adaptive effect is in place it just places on another dot on the enemy champion. In total, it would give it a good amount of crowd control with the combination of his E and Q while also making so it would do Dot damage using skill shots excluding the W that gives him a close range shield. Maybe the E could be a percentage of the current health to help with balancing and the stun can last for half the duration which would be only 1.5 seconds instead of three.

As for the ult, he could change the entire idea altogether or leave it the way it is except include health and mana into the gained stats from the ult. Creating another swarm that is controllable by the player like Shaco and Leblanc to trick the player into attacking the wrong clone or taking that copying idea and using it together with the clone idea somehow.

NinjaFifer1 votes

Alright, and what sense does that make from a real-world perspective? The nanites go "okay, they've been here long enough, we can't attack them anymore."? How would the skill convey this function? There's also a very weird counterplay to it, where you actually stay in the cloud to minimize your damage. If you leave the cloud, an enemy could use a displacement effect to move you back into the cloud and cause a second round of DOT to hit. The way you explain it, Sketchuper, makes the skill make no sense from a clarity view, intuitive view, or balance view.

SolarFlare211 votes

Amazing idea for champion

Flintfall1 votes

The champion morph concept is pretty cool, but there needs to be more interesting gameplay patterns outside of the ult.

I don't find much incentive to stay in my form, I'd just build full health and morph first chance I get. But even then, if everyone on my team is fed, and I'm not, the ult is useless.

I wouldn't feel good to be ahead, or even with the enemy. The only high would be if I went against a fed enemy, morphed into them, and feel cheap for just taking on the guy who has 25 kills.

The passive just makes the abilities have higher numbers, which is a real shame because you can do so much with that.

Also, interesting choice for a poll. You might be a bit insecure about the name or the title, but if it doesn't seem right to you, just wait until it does. It'll come to you.

Just some thoughts...

BLU Medic1 votes

While I can't comment on the stats or anything (I'm no good at that), the lore is completely out of character for both Heimerdinger and Yordles in general. If the experiment had been from someone in Zaun, it would have made far more sense, as that's a beehive of corrupted science and magic gone wrong. Heimerdinger's field probably wouldn't be nanotechnology on its own though, he would have had to work with someone else.

You also need something other than random malice to trigger the Swarm going off and killing all those Yordles, which are rarely considered a threat anyway. It just seems like the Swarm is randomly evil.

Related image: Link

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